As already said, FRA is the financial and economical capital of Germany (and right after that comes MUC...).
Frankfurt as a city is of course not as big as Berlin or Munich, but FRA is one of those artificial hubs...most of the pax arriving in FRA connect to other destinations. LH saw the potential in FRA and I think this is also very important. Without LH opening a hub in FRA, FRA could have never become as big as it is now.

FRA has the big advantage of having almost the perfect location within Germany: it's about as central as things get. You need about 4 hours by train to Munich, to Berlin, about 3 1/2 to Hamburg, around an hour to Cologne and about 1 1/2 to Düsseldorf; almost no big city - if any - is further than 4 hours away by train: the result is that Frankfurt has a huge number of train connections. Remember - there are large areas in Germany where going there by plane is truly idiotic, because the train connections are so good throughout the country, you'll arrive quicker if you don't fly.

If you look at MUC, you'd need more than 6 or 7 hours from some of the larger cities in the north of Germany, so the location - connection-wise - is nowhere near as ideal as FRA is... but at least MUC has something that Berlin doesn't: money, in other words: high yielding passengers.

And then there's also the issue of the airport - before MUC's FJS airport opened, and the city was served by Riem airport, there was just no way that MUC could be anything even resembling a hub: that place was just far too small.

And, as OHLHD correctly states, Berlin was limited after the WW2: LH wasn't permitted to fly to Berlin until 1989 or 1990 (I would need to look that up, not sure which year it was), so Berlin simply wasn't an option... and, just like Munich, the location is far from as good as Frankfurt's location is.

... and the banks here in Frankfurt sure didn't hurt either - creates lot's of high-yielding passengers as well...

It's very near to the Rhein Main Region , being the most important Industrial Region Europe it was and is very important for LH to be near of it . And as Aidcool said , FRA is the financial capital of Germany .

What has been the role of DUS in the years after the second world war? Location-wise, DUS seems to have a good location as well.

Looking at the number of people living within 60-120 minutes from the airport, DUS ranks probably number one in Germany. The banks and stock exchange in Frankfurt help FRA, but heavy industry seems more situated around DUS.

My personal impression is that the reason FRA is LHs mega-hub and not DUS, is merely a result of some decisions made a long time ago. Has LH ever considered building a large hub at DUS? Since when are the noise restrictions in place? And who knows how the Dusseldorf area would have developed, if DUS were the mega hub that FRA is?

Quoting Joost (Reply 8):We will never know, but I dare to say that if FRA did not have the amount of flights that is has, the European Commission might not have chosen Frankfurt as the city for the ECB.

Admittedly, we will never know - but I guess the fact that FRA was the most important finance center within the countries that were planning on using the Euro (as well as the location of Germany's central bank) also had a little bit to do with it... ... the flights certainly didn't hurt either, but I seriously doubt that they were the main deciding factor: after all, how would you then explain Brussels and Strassbourg as the centers of EU legislation?

Frankfurt was an important airport before WWII, while Dusseldorf back then was just one of a number of airports that served the Rhein/Ruhr area. Indeed, in the 1920s/1930s there was more traffic at airports such as Essen and Dortmund.

Quoting Leskova (Reply 9):after all, how would you then explain Brussels and Strassbourg as the centers of EU legislation

Ah, don't get me started on that.... Brussels I can live with, but Strasbourg ^*()*(%*(?%*

Yes, Strasbourg is a pleasant town, and I know it was chosen for being the main town at the border of the two biggest EEC states (and still the biggest EU states now), but the BRU-SXB travelling circus every month is such a waste of money!

Quoting Burnsie28 (Reply 12):What happened to Switzerland with their million banks, how did they fall out of the running.

There is no doubt that Frankfurt is and, for some time, has been the financial capital of continental Europe. Swiss banks get lots of press and media attention for being secretive and wealthy, but in terms of size and clout they have never rivaled those of Germany, Britain or the US. Zurich is a big banking center, sure, but nothing compared to London, New York or Frankfurt.

* Note that Dortmund and Cologne airport before WWII were at a different place than the airports of the same name nowadays.

This nicely illustrates that DÃƒÂ¼sseldorf until the 1950s was a minor German airport, whereas Frankfurt already was a big airport before WWII. You should also be aware of the fact that DÃƒÂ¼sseldorf only became state capital after WW II

As you see Rhein-Main, which contains Frankfurt AM, is the 4th largest metro in Germany. Add to that Rhein-Neckar, for which FRA is also the primary airport, and you have the second largest metro in Germany at 4.8 million. Rhein-Ruhr, and Berlin are not nearly as high yielding markets as FRA as has been pointed out.

Quoting Ssides (Reply 14):Swiss banks get lots of press and media attention for being secretive and wealthy, but in terms of size and clout they have never rivaled those of Germany, Britain or the US. Zurich is a big banking center, sure, but nothing compared to London, New York or Frankfurt.

Banks and financial institutions in Switzerland play a major role in wealth management. One recent figure mentioned that approximately 1/3 of the world's private and institutional wealth was managed in Switzerland. While the large commercial banks UBS and Credit Suisse are based in ZRH, GVA is a major center for private banking -- the term used for wealth management for high net worth individuals and institutions.

Quoting Burnsie28 (Reply 12):What happened to Switzerland with their million banks, how did they fall out of the running.

Quoting Ssides (Reply 14):There is no doubt that Frankfurt is and, for some time, has been the financial capital of continental Europe. Swiss banks get lots of press and media attention for being secretive and wealthy, but in terms of size and clout they have never rivaled those of Germany, Britain or the US. Zurich is a big banking center, sure, but nothing compared to London, New York or Frankfurt

Apart from charter / leisure flights to warm water destinations, only the following come to my mind:QR to DOHEK is requesting traffic rights to DXB but gets it denied ever so often (Unless I miss some new development)
Is Ulaan Bataar in Mongolia still served ?
-HT

Carpe diem ! Life is too short to waste your time ! Keep in mind, that today is the first day of the rest of your life !

Quoting Joost (Reply 7):at has been the role of DUS in the years after the second world war? Location-wise, DUS seems to have a good location as we

DUS has the largest catchment area of all in Germany and should be the logical hub. In the 50s, most Intercont flights of LH called at DUS . However, the airport is too close to the city and the region missed the chance in the 50/60s to establish a hub. Look at the combined traffic figures of DUS/CGN/DTM , that is more than 30 Million in 2007 and hardly any transit.

coming to the question, FRA always has been the crossroads of major European trading lines from north to south and from east to west. The name contains "FURT" - translated FORD, a shallow part of the river where the waggons could cross.

It is a natural hub and an ideal location The crossing of the A3 and A5 Autobahn which are right next to the airport is one of the busiest and that goes for the rail lines and the city train station as well. The airport ICE train station is actually the 4th runway right now.

What surprises me more is that a city of more than 4 mil people, capital of the most populated country in Europe, gets just 4 long-haul flights (2 of which are to the same very popular area of New York region, 1 to Arabian Peninsula, 1 to Mongolia via Moscow). I think is a unique situation in whole Europe.

25 LIPZ
: Not yet, I guess they could resume TXL-PEK sometime in the future. It does make sense since there is a very large Chinese community in Berlin.

26 HT
: To what degree will TXL be able to accomodate more flights and more pax ? Into this question also the pending closure of THF needs to be taken into ac

27 PanHAM
: No surprise at all. The median income in Berlin is lower than average, a big portion of the population lives on welfare and has no income available f

28 Vfw614
: Germany is pretty much decentralized, unlike most European countries. Berlin is the capital of Germany, but other than being home of government insti

29 LIPZ
: To be honest I never remember Rome overshadowed by Milan regarding airline traffic. There used to be in the past and there are still nowadays more in

30 Gsosbee
: You can do the same banking at Swiss banks in Frankfurt as you can do in Zurich. As noted, Switzerland is not part of the EU, but even if it were, Fr

31 PanHAM
: No, it is polycentric No, the Airlift was not only from FRA, several other airports including HAJ and HAM were involved. The airlift has nothing to d

32 Breiz
: There was two main reasons to adopt Flughaven Frankfurt am Main as Lufthansa home base at the end of the WW2: - its natural home, Berlin, was restrict

33 Vfw614
: If so, only be pure coincidence as the more logical choices would have been Cologne, Dortmund or Essen. Only because Dortmund and Cologne, both much

34 Gsosbee
: True, but Rhein-Main AB was the American hub and were all of the heavy lifting was done.

35 PanHAM
: Yes, but that was separate from the commercial operations, Up until the Cargo City South opened, the souhern side of the airport was military only an

36 Vfw614
: The fact remains that pre WWII Cologne was six times larger than DÃƒÂ¼sseldorf airport, Essen was three times larger and Dortmund twice as large.

37 PanHAM
: @Vfw614 - neither Brakel nor Butzweilerhof had any potential for expansion. Also, you totally forget that air travel, as we know it today, started off

38 BuyantUkhaa
: Isn't it ironic then, that there is this big airline called Air Berlin, that actually has its hub on a Mediterranean island?!

39 PanHAM
: same like this big Australian airline having a hub in SIN. You have to go where the business is and linking a number of northern European cities with

40 Vfw614
: Err, yes, With hindsight. But the airport landscape in the late 1940s/early 1950s was not developed with the knowledge of today. The pre-war figures

41 Someone83
: London is still considered to be part of Europe..... even though it's not in "Continental" Europe